Wednesday 1st to Friday 3rd August 2018
Our next chosen resting place was to be Harstad Camping. Harstad is located in Troms county on Hinnøya, Norway’s fourth largest island.
Towing Kilometres – Today: 137 Cumulative: 20,850
The route was anything but ‘as the crow flies’ and the weather was cooler than of late under overcast skies.
We received a friendly welcome on site and booked in for three nights as I’d rather overdone it with the driving lately (again) 🙂
We chose a large, level, gravel pitch in the corner and quickly made ourselves comfortable. The facilities are good although you have to pay extra for a shower which seems quite common in Norway. The site has its own mini marina and boats are available to hire. A German couple we watched hauled ashore a massive catch of fish from one such boat. It must have taken them a good couple of hours to fillet and bag their catch before putting it all in a large freezer box in the back of their camper.
Another German neighbour travelled in this rather nice vintage Mercedes motorhome.
Thursday dawned bright and warm so we decided to explore the local area. We drove into town and almost immediately passed through an Autopass toll camera. I hadn’t done any research on tolls in Norway so we quickly found a stopping place and registered the car. Apparently we will be invoiced sometime in the next couple of months for our toll road usage.
Once we got this sorted we visited Trondenes Church, the worlds most northerly stone church from late medieval times around 1250.
Next door to the church is a memorial to the more than 800 Russian prisoners that died being forced to build the Trondenes fortress by the Germans during WW2. Remains of the camp that housed them are still visible. The fort was to house four huge ‘Adolf Cannons‘. Our attempt to visit these ended at a checkpoint with a stern looking armed guard. Apparently you have to book ahead 🙂
